AI Will Make Our World Unrecognizable in 10 Years: Will.i.am

CANNES, France—“People have no clue of how transformational this next decade is going to be,” exclaimed award-winning musical artist and technology entrepreneur will.i.am while speaking at Cannes Lions.

“By 2033, you’re not going to recognize how we used to do things,” he added. “So much transformation is going to happen in the next 10 years. The giants of today are not the giants of tomorrow.”

With the potential of generative artificial intelligence to supplement creativity being this year’s major talking point at Cannes Lions, will.i.am spoke at an Adweek event alongside former Airbnb and Coca-Cola chief marketing officer Jonathan Mildenhall, now the chief executive officer of marketing consultancy TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, about their views on the evolution of the advertising sector and the creator community.

During the discussion with Adweek’s Europe creativity editor Brittaney Kiefer, they talked about the relationships being built between creators, agencies and brands.

Mildenhall believes the brands that do commit to working with creators must do so “to create a different accent on culture and different experiences” to reward their communities.  

On AI, will.i.am was positive about the potential effect it will have on the world, admitting that there was a need for governance of the technology but adding that the rules “should not stifle” innovation. He also posed the idea that people working in AI should qualify to do so, like earning a driver’s license, to ensure safety.

His view is that the tech will heighten creative skills, including his own, but that it shouldn’t be adopted just to do the work of today such as writing songs, creating pitches or making content, but to identify and solve problems, “erect” new industries and create jobs.

“That’s one challenge for creators to do right now. Be the job creator, be the industry maker,” he advised.

According to Mildenhall, over the next two years, new leaders in AI creative will emerge alongside “AI influencers” as they share their successes and failures in embracing the technology.

“My biggest call is for people to experiment and for people to share their learnings, the good and bad learnings,” he added, “so that over the next few years we can all start to develop this new creative muscle with this new creative.”

We’re going to see brand reputation being manipulated by bad actors using this content. So governance is key.

Jonathan Mildenhall, CEO, TwentyFirstCenturyBrand

Mildenhall also spoke about the response to Bud Light’s partnership with trans creator Dylan Mulvaney, a mistake he warned could be repeated using AI technology to create negative content for brands that looks authentic. This, he believes, means there is a need for governance to prevent bad actors from producing deepfakes and seemingly official content, especially with the upcoming presidential election in the U.S.

“We’re going to see brand reputation being manipulated by bad actors using this content. So governance is key,” he said.

Will.i.am also discussed FYI, the creative tech platform and online community he created. Inspired by early pandemic social restrictions, FYI allows creatives to collaborate remotely by bringing together communication and content creation tools in one place.

The money raised by FYI is being used to fund his own organization, which provides tech training for younger people to give them opportunities in the future as the world evolves to become even more tech-focused.

“Peloton did use FYI as a tool for their community to create content,” will.i.am said. “You would see content that is far more authentic and far more effective than content that any advertising agency can do.”